Desktop Bonfire

Introduction: Desktop Bonfire

About: I am Electronic Visualization Artist. I look at things through the Looking Glasses.
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I got an idea for the "Make It Grow" Contest, but I had a problem, my soldering iron broke. I ordered a new one but it hasn't arrived yet!
After carefully thought about the project I decided to go with it but instead of solder the components to the PCB I would used the breadboard and my Palm Arduino for the project.

I called this project "Desktop Bonfire."
I used Lego Bricks and Plates to make frames (or bonfire) around my Palm Arduino with the tiny breadboard attached on top of it. I used 5mm LEDs (Red, Yellow, and White) as a combination of the color of the fire lid at the bonfire.
Then I added the straws for the soda (I got it from the fast-food vendor, and it is a perfect fit to 5mm LEDs, picture in Step 2) on the LEDs to make the LEDs glow more than usually and make light from LEDs more visibility.

I connected all the LEDs to available PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) pins - D3, D5, D6, D9, D10 and D11. And I programmed the Arduino to randomly brighten or dim the LEDs, as the effect of the bonfire (Arduino sketch is available in Step 4.)

By looking at it, it does make me feel like sitting around a warm bonfire during the short day in Winter.

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Step 2: Let's Get Started!

If you are going to build this project you can substitute Palm Arduino with your preferred Arduino. Or if you want to build you own Palm Arduino you can see the building details of Palm Arduino here.

The schematic below shows the exactly the same as Palm Arduino schematic. It also shows the connection of the LEDs a to PWM pins on Arduino. The LED color can be switched around. It doesn't have to be exacted. But the LEDs have to be connected to Arduino's PWM pins (D3, D5, D6, D9, D10 and D11) only.

The LEDs on pin D13 was the typical 3mm Arduino test LEDs only! It's already there with the Palm Arduino. I am not using it in the project.

I started with the LEDs, by inserted one individual LED into one end of a straw (perfectly fit!) I did not cut the straws at the step yet.

Next I connected one end of the jumpers to the PWM pins as mentioned earlier.

Then I built a rough bonfire (or frame) with Lego bricks, it's only a temporary frame.

Finally, I did a few tests with my Arduino sketch. The sketch worked. But the white LEDs seem to be a lot brighter than the red and yellow LEDs. So I readjusted the values in the sketch. (See videos in Step 4)

Step 3: Constructing the Bonfire (or Lego Frame)

In this Step, I'm going to show you how to construct the bonfire (or frame).
I also added the description text on each image.

image 1. Before starting to build the "bonfire", detached the USB end of the FTDI cable from the USB port on the PC. But keep the FTDI connector end attached to the Arduino. So we know where to leave the gap for FTDI cable.